At 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, the NBA settled a few tiebreak situations amongst teams around the league to square away the non-lottery first-round draft order for this June’s NBA Draft. The format for these proceedings involved ping-pong balls and a lottery machine; it was quite dramatic. Only the NBA, am I right?.
The NBA held five separate tiebreakers, and one of the tiebreak-lotteries directly involved the Orlando Magic. Four franchises—the Toronto Raptors, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Utah Jazz, and the Cleveland Cavaliers—all finished the regular season with identical 51-31 records. The NBA needed to resolve who would be selecting 23rd-26th in the first round of this year’s draft. All four teams received three balls placed in the lottery machine, and the team whose ball at random was selected would be awarded the 23rd pick, and so on.
Of course, the Magic received a 2017 1st round pick from the Raptors last February in the Serge Ibaka deal. However, Toronto also owns the Clippers’ pick in ‘17, and part of the Ibaka deal stipulated that the Magic would receive the less favorable of the two picks. Therefore, the Magic were ineligible to receive the 23rd pick; basically the best-case scenario would have been to receive the 24th, worst case the 26th. Orlando’s pick (via Toronto) fell in the middle. Toronto (via L.A.) will select 23rd, the Jazz 24th, the Magic 25th, and Portland 26th (via Cleveland).
In fact, the Blazers were involved in three different tiebreak situations today, and they are slated to pick three times in the first round this year. Portland owns its own pick (15th, awarded in a tie-breaker over the Chicago Bulls), a pick from the Memphis Grizzlies (20th, lost in a tie-breaker with the Milwaukee Bucks), and Cleveland’s pick (26th).
Two lottery teams, the New York Knicks and the Minnesota Timberwolves, also settled a tiebreaker to determine their respective draft orders. The Timberwolves, who won the tiebreaker, were awarded the sixth-best odds in the upcoming NBA Lottery. Remember, only the top-three selections are actually decided via a lottery. Team record determines the remaining spots in the lottery. If neither team is awarded a top-three pick, then the Wolves will be selecting one spot in front of the Knicks.
The Magic will also be selecting 35th in this year’s draft, and could very well be gaining the 33rd pick from the Los Angeles Lakers if they fail to convey their lottery selection to the Philadelphia 76ers this year. Through the lottery, if the Lakers fall out of the top-three (and Philadelphia takes ownership of their pick), then Los Angeles will be obligated to send a 2019 first-round pick to Orlando.
It remains to be seen if Magic upper-management is interested in bringing in that many new, young faces into the organization. A lot of leadership decisions must be made within the organization between now and then. With the team slated to select three (probably four) times within the first thirty-five picks, there’s always a possibility of packaging a couple of those picks to trade back into the late first round, use a selection to stash a player overseas, or trade a couple picks for a targeted player (although unlikely).
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